Deal Clears Last Obstacle to City Schools Overhaul

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: June 11, 2003

The Bloomberg administration yesterday cleared the last legal hurdle to New York City's most sweeping educational overhaul in more than a generation, settling a lawsuit that opposed the mayor's plan to reorganize local school districts.

Under the deal, which was approved by Justice Doris Ling-Cohan of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, the administration agreed to maintain a small office in each of the 32 existing community school districts. But the new district offices will be a shadow of the current ones, which were often criticized as being bloated. Now, just three people will be assigned to each one.

The administration also agreed to name a superintendent for each district, retaining a title that Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein had planned to eliminate. But the deal allows Mr. Klein to proceed with plans to reorganize the school system into 10 instructional regions.

Both the administration and a group of state, local and federal lawmakers who had brought the suit claimed victory yesterday. Mr. Klein said he had protected the reform plan by agreeing to cosmetic changes, while the lawmakers said they had won important concessions for parents and communities.

The settlement averted a potentially lengthy court battle that had threatened to derail not just the district reorganization, but virtually every component of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's effort to overhaul the schools, including new uniform reading and math curriculums and plans to give principals autonomy over their school budgets.

The settlement did little, however, to end the acrimony between the Bloomberg administration and its critics in the State Legislature. Each side called a news conference yesterday morning to announce the deal and offer its spin.

Mr. Klein, speaking to reporters gathered around a conference table at the Education Department's headquarters in the Tweed Courthouse, said that he had conceded virtually nothing. Noting the sunny weather, he said, "The last cloud to our reorganization plan has now been removed."

At precisely the same moment, State Senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, Assemblyman Steven Sanders of Manhattan and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit gathered on the steps of City Hall. "The mayor and the schools chancellor have blinked," Mr. Kruger said. "Our communities have won."

The Education Department immediately moved to push ahead with its reorganization plan by announcing how the city's 1,200 schools would be grouped within the 10 new divisions, which are being headed by 10 regional superintendents.

Last year, state legislators granted Mr. Bloomberg widely expanded control of the city school system. But after Mr. Bloomberg announced details of his reorganization plan in January, many of the same lawmakers turned against him, saying they never expected him to effectively eliminate the local school districts and superintendents.

Each regional superintendent will oversee a team of local instructional supervisors, who in turn will directly supervise 9 to 12 schools. The Education Department's Web site — www.nycenet.edu — has posted the names of the 113 instructional supervisors and the schools they will oversee.

Officials also said that within the next day or so, principals will get their budget allocations for next year from the central administration under a new system that avoids channeling the money first through a district office.

The settlement yesterday largely mirrored a deal that Mr. Klein struck late last month with State Senator Frank Padavan of Queens, who had introduced legislation aimed at blocking the district reorganization plan.

In the deal with Mr. Padavan, the chancellor agreed to maintain the small offices in each district and to appoint a district administrator to be chosen from the ranks of the local instructional supervisors.

Under yesterday's court settlement, the district administrators will be called community superintendents, but will still be taken from the group of local instructional supervisors. It seems likely that the job will be little more than an extra title.

Mr. Klein said the local instructional supervisors who serve as community superintendents would still be responsible for overseeing their groups of schools. But they will also sign evaluations of principals in their districts and will be liaisons to the parent councils that are expected to replace the old community school boards, he said.

Mr. Sanders, the chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, said yesterday's settlement was important because it forced Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein to comply with state education law, which establishes district boundaries and outlines the responsibilities of community superintendents.

But he acknowledged that under the mayor's reorganization plan the community superintendents might have a limited role. "If they are doing their best to circumvent the law, I say shame on them," Mr. Sanders said. "There are only so many things you can enforce by law. Sincerity unfortunately isn't one of them."

The principals' union, which had joined the lawsuit against the mayor's plan, praised the settlement. "There is now no question that in September the entire school system will be operating consistent with existing state law," the union president, Jill Levy, said in a prepared statement.

The teachers' union, which was not involved in the lawsuit, also praised the deal.

"We congratulate the parties for putting aside their differences," the union president, Randi Weingarten, said in a statement.